Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1887-11-30

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girl felt awed and nervous.
Ere the afternoon was over the dark
ness was deep as night; then the storm
burst.
Great flashes of fire Illuminated at
intervals all the plain. Purple and
blue and crimson, they flooded the earth
with awful radiance, then suddenly in
blazing hieroglyphics darIed across the
darkeued SKY as though some Titanic
| finger Wrote some word Of doom upon
the blackened scroll, and tue wild
/ fierce thunder caught the meaning and
echoed the mystic language from side
TO side of the TesOundIng valley.
Then the clouds broke, and the rain
/ fell in tremendous torrents, washing
| past the doorway in a food, and blind
/ ing the girl when she tried to pierce
/ the darkness FOR a sign of her fathers
/ approach
Again and again she looked in vain,
and, coming back, built up the fire and
| drew his chair nearer the kindly blaze.
Yet he came not.
As the hours passed Maggie became
| strangely anxious.
The fury of the storm was over, but
the rain continued TO fall heavily.
She could hear the roar of the brawl-
| ing stream that fed the IKE, and the
moan of the wind across the plain; but
| no sound of foOtstep nor human voice
I cheered her anxious ear.
Her father WAS not wont to linger.
She glanced at the clock uneasily,
and great terror seized her and d
/ great remOTse.
Why, Oh why, had she let him go
| unrecOnciled? She might never See
| him more.
Once again she opened the door and
| listened intently.
| 1t was night now. and the dark ness
| OF il had succeeded that or the storm
/ The rain still fell, and she could hear
| even Yet 10 sound but the rush of the
[ TIyulets it had made, and ever, ever
| the roar of the stream her father had TO
/ cross, the noise of II beat upon her
+ brain with a sense of absolute physical
pain.
/ As she stood looking out into the
I night, the light from the brightly
/ Iliumined kitchen shining behind her,
[ suddenly she started bIck, for there
Was a strange, weird sound IL the ar
above her, and rush of some winged
creature.
Another second and a poor bslated
dove of snowy plumage flew against
.
moment, then settled on the Old mans
| chair.
Moss gave a long, desPaiTing howl,
and. coming TO the doorway, whiued
p,teOuSly as lie looked out into the dark
ness, then up IN MaGgle's face.
Then the girl threw herself into a
chair, and her head on the table and
sobbed as though her heart would
break.
The day had been a weary enc for
Ralph Irwin also. He knew OF Mag
gie's loneliness, yet he could not bring
himself TO break It. The words of her
father had hurt him TO the quick, and
II did not seem possible TO enter the
farmers house IN his absence, or even
approach the girl he loved, III face o!
that cruel tauut.
Perhaps he had no right TO so pure
love; perhaps il had been wrong of him
/ 10 lift his eyes To one Who bore an hon
/ est name.
That was the worst OF il. In the
/ humility born of his TeveTsnt tender
| love for Maggie, lie hardly felt worthy
[ OF her at all, even without the blot on
/ his fathers name; Yet his arms ached
. to hold her once again 10 his heart and
I tell her how lie loved her.
lie had loved his outlaw father too,
and the tears came 10 his brave young
| eyes at the memory of The man WHO
/ had been noble and true hearted even
| in his lawlessness; and pity for that
ruined life mingled with the pain
I caused by the wreck OF his own happi-
ness and hope.
IL all male him restless, anc the con-
/ tiuement of the narrow house where he
dweit grew unbearaole.
Ralph loved Nature IN every mood,
but perhaps best IN her more turbulent
ones; they suited the impatient longing
in his mind for fuller life and more
intensity of action. He wearied at all
times OF the S,agnatIOn and mOnOtony
| round him, wearIed of minds that could
give him no stimulus. and found well
nigh intolerable i round of daily life
/ that seemed 10 have no result save the
/ bare fulfilling Of the fact of living; and
now that he was severed from the one
I creature that had sympathiZed with his
wants and understood his nature. lie
was more and more restless and dis
satisfied.
Spite of the coming storm, he had
wandered out on TO the moor, had seen
| the great clouds gather and break, and
| watched the startled creatures of the
| deld huddle together for shelter, or
seek hastily their coveTts for safety.
He had himself taken refuge from the
pouring EaIn under an oyeThangin2
I hedge of rock, from whence he conld
/ watch the rushing stream, the play of
| the dazzling fire amid the sOmbTe
clouds and the sudden lighting up by
I tie ftful vivid flashes OF the great
. deSOlate moor.
/ The lad was not cultured enough TO
analyze his own feelings nor, indeed,
| did he care about them, and certainly
would have found il impossible To paint
/ in words the scene before him. Yet
not less was he awed by Its sublimity.
Its terrific maguidcenc- excited him,
| and iss beauty and wild grandeur made
/ him forget his own small troubles Un-
| consciously there fell on him 4 great
deep calm
| Nature was so great, and the some
| thing behind nature so infinitely grand,
| that his soul grew subdu-d.
God was in the thunder to this peas
ant lad; yet he felt only wOTshlp-DOt a
touch OF fear
His love FOR Maggie was too much a
I part of himself to he forgotten; but for
tnat hour he was patient, and his re-
sentiment against her father, and
I against the verdict of the country side,
! subIimated itself into a heroic eudur-
ance and resignation.
And even through his thoughts he
I heard the roar of the stream, the cry OF
! the night bird in the distance, aud the
I thunder, growing fainter when the
storm At length began 10 pass.
! Once or twice, as the lightning flashed
and lit for a second the whole horizon,
| he fancied he saw dark object on the
moor, as though some fgure advanced
/ towards him; but the darkness fell
aSaIu SO quickly his mind had barely
4 time to register the impression his eye
/ conveyed.
Suddenly cry of dismayl a shrill
/ vet feeble shrek for help; then another.
as o. despair, rise above the roar of the
/ torrent; and Ralph jumps 10 his feet.
Merciful heayenl There. within his
very reach, is some lost creature being
borne away by the fury OF the stream.